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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30030429">brother's keeper</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrants/pseuds/Radio%20Rascal'>Radio Rascal (Vagrants)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, brief background Aileron/Arcee, fucked up sibling dynamics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:00:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30030429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrants/pseuds/Radio%20Rascal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is not funny,” Galvatron growled.<br/>“Brother, please. It’s a <i>little</i> funny.”</p>
<p>There was only one way Galvatron could have come back from Jupiter alive. Arcee is trying to make the best of it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arcee &amp; Galvatron (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>brother's keeper</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>disclosure: this is based on a piece of fanart i saw on tumblr! i can provide a link but i didn't ask the artist if it was all right to link it in my fic, and i'm not entirely sure what the etiquette is, so.</p>
<p>double disclosure: i have still not read RID and still refuse to. when i write these two i sit down, think "remember, they're both the Evil Twin but Arcee's gay friends eventually radicalized her in the opposite direction" and go off that.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every morning Arcee awoke to a view of Cybertron outside her window. It often struck her as surreal that she would be here after everything that happened and what she had been through; she saw the planet at its greatest, its lowest, and now its rebirth. Not everyone made it to this point, and for those that did, this was the ultimate second chance.</p>
<p>Arcee got up and walked into the living room. “How was your night?” she asked, a little sardonically, to the severed head sitting on the little table in front of the couch.</p>
<p>Galvatron responded with a characteristic grumble.</p>
<p>She rolled her optics as she walked past him. She took a cube of energon from storage, sat down in front of him, and ignored how he glared at her.</p>
<p>Since he was nothing more than a severed head, a spinal cord, and a spark, Galvatron didn’t drink energon. None of his parts needed it. He couldn’t process it, and if he swallowed any it would just run out of the bottom of his neck.</p>
<p>His envy and outrage were highly apparent. Arcee would have offered him a taste, but offering anything made him more despondent and offended. When it came to her brother, it felt like he was trying to frustrate all her attempts at doing the right thing.</p>
<p>“Did you ever program that holoform?” Arcee asked.</p>
<p>“No,” Galvatron snapped. In a lower voice he continued, “I would rather die. Besides, what is the point? I cannot leave the premises.”</p>
<p>“That’s what the ‘arrest’ part of ‘house arrest’ means.” She noted that he did look at the program, at least, since he knew about the restrictions. Galvatron shut off his optics, snubbing her the only way he still could.</p>
<p>Even if he got outside, in holoform or otherwise, he couldn’t do much. In the years following his defeat at Jupiter, his co-conspirators had all been captured. Most were still in prison.</p>
<p>He would have been, too, if Arcee hadn’t managed to struggle through Prowl’s red tape to gain custody a month ago. First she convinced the right people that it wouldn’t be dangerous, then, as a bonus, mentioned that spending time with her would improve Galvatron’s condition and possibly even rehabilitate him. The Prime seemed weary of the entire situation and allowed it on the condition that Galvatron couldn’t leave Arcee’s apartment except in a life-threatening emergency.</p>
<p>That was fine by her. He wasn’t hard to care for; he couldn’t eat, and only occasionally needed to be plugged in for charging and defragging. Whether this arrangement proved to be “dangerous” was a secondary concern for her, too. She doubted that any of Galvatron’s soldiers were loyal enough to want to spring him, and she <em>highly</em> doubted they were more loyal to him than they were afraid of her. What worried her was his ice-cold resistance to any and everything she did.</p>
<p>Arcee tipped the cube to her mouth and realized it was empty, so she set it down. She lightly touched the horns on either side of Galvatron’s head, which made his optics turn on in response. “I’m leaving now and I won’t be back until late. I’ll call if anything comes up.” He couldn’t answer, but she’d set up voicemail so he could listen to her messages.</p>
<p>There was a flash of anger in his optics. He got lonely in here, whether he would admit it or not.</p>
<p>“Do you want me to put anything on TV?”</p>
<p>“No.” He always said no.</p>
<p>“All right then. Bye.” She couldn’t stay here and beg him to do the things she thought he ought to be doing. If he wanted to sit here in silence for hours, marinating in his anger and boredom, that was his prerogative. There was only so much she could do.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Her mood started off low, even for her. It wasn’t exactly Galvatron’s fault; she was frustrated <em>for</em> him more than <em>at</em> him, and there was always a lot going on anyway. Though they’d successfully repelled Unicron and saved Cybertron, the massive death machine had done severe damage and the restoration was still in full swing a year later. Cybertron looked the way it did late in the Great War, but it didn’t <em>feel</em> the same, since Autobots, Decepticons, and Neutrals were working side-by-side to fix things.</p>
<p>Arcee, though, preferred to work on her tasks alone. Prowl was sensitive to this if literally nothing else, so he made sure she was assigned to low-density sectors or solitary work. Today she was slicing big pieces of rubble into smaller pieces of rubble that would be easier for the large vehicles to haul to the smelter. It was repetitive, but it felt good to be helpful and to lose herself in something.</p>
<p>As her shift dragged on, she felt herself growing lighter—not only because the physical exertion cleared her mind, but because she and Aileron were meeting late that afternoon. Her spark was practically humming in her chest. If she were a different sort of person she would have started singing.</p>
<p>When it was time for her to switch places with the afternoon shift, she nearly ran out of the wreckage site. She didn’t slow down until she was deep in the untouched sections of Iacon City, and only so she wouldn’t crash into rush hour traffic.</p>
<p>Aileron was already waiting at the park, standing beside a glowing crystal that made her look even smaller. It was all Arcee could do to resist picking her up off the ground.</p>
<p>“Arcee,” Aileron said. She was smiling, but her optics narrowed in a wince. “I’m so sorry, but something came up and—I have to go in an hour.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Arcee said, because it was. Any time they spent together was good. “Really, it’s okay. I hope everything’s all right.”</p>
<p>“It is, but—” Aileron shook her head. “Always seems like there’s something, right?”</p>
<p>Arcee placed a hand on her shoulder and turned towards the park. They’d had more plans, but would only have time for a walk today. This was a more slow-paced activity than anything Arcee was used to, but she thought she could get used to it easily. They looped around back at the entrance just in time for Aileron to leave and make her appointment—not before they kissed goodbye.</p>
<p>Arcee stood there for a minute, confounded as to what to do with herself now. After a few moments she sighed, as if deflating, and started walking back home. There was nothing she wanted to do and nowhere she wanted to go.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When Arcee stepped into her apartment, she was immediately transfixed by a diamond-shaped mass of polygons floating in the air. As she watched, it deformed, twisting along its vertical axis and becoming more globular. A few thin pieces stretched out of the mass, three from the top half and two from the bottom. Then, it broke apart suddenly, scattering towards the floor and dissolving like sugar in water.</p>
<p>Galvatron let out a harsh growl. His optics were shut tight and he was snarling with a near-painful expression. He opened his optics and it took him a second to notice Arcee. They stared at each other, dumbfounded.</p>
<p>“That was your holoform,” Arcee said.</p>
<p>“I was bored!” Galvatron shouted. In a more controlled voice he hissed, “Why are you back so early?!”</p>
<p>“Something came up and Aileron had to leave.” Arcee strode into the living room. “What went wrong?”</p>
<p>“How should I know?” He averted his optics. “That was the first time I tried it.”</p>
<p><em>Doubtful,</em> Arcee thought. “I can help you.”</p>
<p>Galvatron’s pinkish skin blushed fuchsia and he glared harder at his reflection on the table. “It matters not! I do not desire one.”</p>
<p>“Okay, okay. Will you at least tell me what you tried to make? Describe it to me.”</p>
<p>“Tall. Broad. Masculine.”</p>
<p>“Your holoform won’t necessarily look like you,” Arcee said, recalling the pictures she’d seen of Whirl and his holoform. “It reflects something deeper. Maybe that’s your problem.”</p>
<p>Galvatron narrowed his optics up at her. “Are you saying my inner self is weak and small?”</p>
<p>“No. I’m saying to let the AI do what it wants instead of forcing things. Programming a holoform to look a specific certain way is difficult. A beginner is better off accepting whatever they get.”</p>
<p>“What if it gives me something I dislike? What if what it gives me is not me?”</p>
<p>“Then you’ll know what it feels like,” Arcee said, and laughed at the look he gave her in response.</p>
<p>“This is not funny,” Galvatron growled.</p>
<p>“Brother, please. It’s a <em>little</em> funny.”</p>
<p>He growled, baring his fangs. “You came back deliberately,” he snarled. “You figured out I was doing something and wished to humiliate me.”</p>
<p>Arcee started, stopped to think for a second, then began again. “I thought you might be toying with the holoform program, but this was unintentional. What would the point of humiliating you even be?”</p>
<p>Galvatron’s tone became sneering, heated. For somebody who lacked a chest, he managed to synthesize a lot of pressure in his voice. “It is obvious. I cannot believe you refuse to admit it even when I have you caught.”</p>
<p>“Admit <em>what</em>?”</p>
<p>“The only reason you took me in is to humiliate me for your enjoyment,” Galvatron shouted. “You derive some sick satisfaction from my situation! The only reason I am alive is so you can <em>torment</em> me!”</p>
<p>For a few seconds Arcee was too stunned to speak. The mood had taken a severe and abrupt nosedive for what seemed to her like no reason, blindsiding her into a brief state of stupefaction. She stood there with her mouth hanging open while Galvatron maintained an angry, hurt, but triumphant look on his face.</p>
<p>“No,” she said, finding purchase in logical thought once again. “That’s <em>absurd</em>. What made you think that?”</p>
<p>“The Prime has forced me unto you because he tires of my presence in his sacred little halls,” Galvatron said. “You resent this arrangement.”</p>
<p>“Galvatron, you <em>dumb bastard</em>, you’re my twin brother. Do you not remember all the campaigning I did to get Prowl to let you go? He was keen on keeping you in a cage. I’m the only reason you’re out of prison and it was <em>my choice</em>.”</p>
<p>“Why ever would you do that? You say we are twins but our bond was severed long ago, and now you have that little conjunx.”</p>
<p>There was a lot to unpack there. “That’s—we—there’s still—<em>so what</em>? I still feel for you. That’ll never stop. Besides, what do you mean about my ‘little conjunx?’ Aileron and I aren’t...” She trailed off for a second, and came to the conclusion before he could speak up. “You seriously believe we haven’t done the ceremony and moved in together because of you? We’ve been together for over a year while you’ve been with me for a month. I don’t live with Aileron yet because that’s not what I want.”</p>
<p>“And I would pose no problems?”</p>
<p>“It’d be something to discuss,” Arcee said. “She knows about you. She helped me get this all done. We’d have to think it through, but it’s not a concern. Trust me.”</p>
<p>“I don’t <em>trust</em> you. The you now is nothing like the sister I once knew. <em>Nothing</em> is the same.”</p>
<p>“You’re upset about the holoform thing and just saying things now.”</p>
<p>“I have been thinking of this since I arrived here,” Galvatron said. “Have I been upset over my failure that long? Or have I been suspicious of you for a reason—”</p>
<p>“I haven’t brought it up with her because I’m scared, all right?” Arcee snapped. She clutched at her arms, glowering down at him. The force of her anger made him quiet. “It’s not easy to talk about these things with people. There’s so much...to—think about, and... It isn’t <em>you</em> I fear she would dislike.”</p>
<p>Galvatron glanced around, as if looking for the answer, but she knew he’d caught onto the implication. “...You?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“You?!”</p>
<p>“Yes! It was never about you and—you can’t just assume it’s about you all the time.” She was still speaking loudly, but she wasn’t angry anymore.</p>
<p>“How was I supposed to know? What else am I to assume?”</p>
<p>“I never talked to you about it because—” She stopped herself. She had never said it because to speak it aloud was to make the fear real. Her spark was already recoiling. “It’s just hard. I am not trying to keep things from you, or from her, or...” Wasn’t she, though, a little bit?</p>
<p>Galvatron eyed her for a few seconds. “I find it difficult to believe she would find you a bad roommate,” he said.</p>
<p>She relaxed, letting her arms fall to her sides. “I find it difficult to believe you don’t, after all of that.”</p>
<p>“Well, as you said, I am not in the best state of mind.” He averted his optics while he said this.</p>
<p>“I suppose it’s natural,” Arcee said. “Neither of us are the best at this, are we? Connecting with people. Even with each other it’s hard.”</p>
<p>Galvatron just frowned, then after a moment said, “So I am not a toy to you?”</p>
<p>“Of course not.”</p>
<p>“You will still keep me here?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Arcee thought. “Do you want to stay here? Do you ever wish things had happened differently?”</p>
<p>“In what way?”</p>
<p>It was hard to suggest what was on her mind, so she came at it obliquely. “I did this to you to help you, because I thought it was best for you,” she said. “I worked hard to get you out of prison so you could live in what I thought were more comfortable conditions. I’ve done everything because I felt like it was right. Do you agree?”</p>
<p>Galvatron glanced down. Several seconds passed, and his only response was a noncommittal noise. That was enough for Arcee.</p>
<p>She refused to think he was right.</p>
<p>“Brother...”</p>
<p>“I don’t like this. I didn’t want any of this.”</p>
<p>“I know.”</p>
<p>“Everything is so wrong. This is the worst way I have ever lived.”</p>
<p>That sent a painful shock through Arcee’s spark. Maybe his memory was dulled or something, but she hadn’t forgotten their shared childhood. Was it really worse than <em>that</em>?</p>
<p>“It’s because of you that I am like this, and even you do not know if I will ever be granted another body.”</p>
<p>“...Yeah.”</p>
<p>The room fell silent. It was always awkward, trying to figure out what to do when conversations like this went quiet. Arcee knew there was a thread that would bother her if she didn’t follow it to its end now, though.</p>
<p>“So,” she started, tension peaking in her frame. “If I were to...” She looked away from him. “If you were to die, by some circumstance, then would you find that preferable to how you live now?”</p>
<p>“If your question is whether or not I wish for you to kill me,” Galvatron said, so casually, and she was sure he was faking nonchalance to bother her at this point, “then I will tell you that my answer is no.”</p>
<p>“Really?”</p>
<p>“I...I want to live,” Galvatron said. “Don’t kill me.”</p>
<p>“I’m not going to! I didn’t want to! I just...” She knew he would hate this, and she knew he would blame her. From the moment she plunged her swords into his chest, excising his head and spark from his body, nullifying his threat without having to sacrifice him, she had felt guilty. Even in saving his life, she hurt him and he hated her. “...Feel very weird about this, like you do.”</p>
<p>He was silent for a while, and she had nothing to say. What he said next surprised her. “Show me how to do it. The holoform thing.”</p>
<p>“Okay... Why do you want my help now?”</p>
<p>“I assumed you were being disingenuous earlier,” Galvatron said bluntly.</p>
<p>“Now you know I’m sincere.”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“All right, then. We’ll take a shot at it tomorrow or someday soon. I’d like to have more time for us to focus on it.”</p>
<p>“What does yours look like?”</p>
<p>“Oh, I’ve never made one either.”</p>
<p>Galvatron huffed.</p>
<p>“I know how,” Arcee said defensively. “I’ve just never bothered. It’ll be interesting for both of us.”</p>
<p>He snorted. “I hope so.”</p>
<p>She glanced at her internal chronometer. It wasn’t as late as she expected; it felt like they’d been standing there yelling at each other for hours. She wondered what the neighbors would think, if they had neighbors. Few people wanted to live next to her when she was alone, and taking her brother in was like writing “WILD HUNGRY SCRAPLETS” on her front door.</p>
<p>There were things left unsaid between them still, but the moment had passed and Arcee was tired anyway. She was a little hopeful now, at least, that their relationship would begin to improve and the other things that worried her would fall into their places. More conversations would happen, maybe and probably and hopefully. Not only with him, but Aileron too—if she could talk to her brother about this, she could bring up her insecurities with her girlfriend.</p>
<p>Arcee briefly rested a hand on Galvatron’s head. “...Is it patronizing when I touch you like this?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“I’m going to get some energon now. I know you can’t use it, but do you want to taste it?”</p>
<p>The fuchsia tinge returned to his cheeks. “Yes.”</p>
<p>For the first time, Arcee felt like this whole thing might just work out.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you for reading! i hope that wasn't too painfully out of character for either of them. i love them a lot, but not enough to suffer the way RID would make me suffer, lol.</p>
<p>this sort of felt like a spiritual successor to a couple of other fics i've written about TFA Megatron being in...similar situations to Galvatron here. i might add more to it later if i think of something good. for right now this is all i had in me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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